LAHORE Feb 17 (TNS): Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday said the bid by some western countries to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist is a political act.
Speaking to media in Lahore, the interior minister said the West wants to pressurize Pakistan to achieve certain objectives, because of which it is pushing to place the country on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watchlist.
The United States earlier this month put forward a motion to place Pakistan on the FATF watchlist. The FATF, an intergovernmental body based in Paris, sets global standards for fighting illicit finance.
Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avert being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with terrorist financing regulations by the FATF, a measure that officials fear could hurt its economy.
The country’s de facto finance minister, Miftah Ismail, said earlier this week that the United States and Britain put forward the motion, and later persuaded France and Germany to co-sponsor it. Pakistan was working with the US, UK, Germany and France for the nomination to be withdrawn, he added.
